The Daily News opinion blog

Main menu

Post navigation

It’s Too Easy to Blame the Victims

It’s tempting and easy to blame the victims of prejudice and oppression for their victimhood. It’s too easy to look at poor African-Americans and tell them to “Just get over it. Slavery was a long time ago. You’ve been free, now be responsible.”

Legal slavery may be long gone, but social subjugation is so recent as to be current. American blacks have not had equal opportunity for fair housing that leads to good schools. This means that most have not had equal opportunity for education, for acceptance in colleges, for hiring in executive position and advancement to the top. As a people, they have been, and continue to be, abused.

Yes, we have admired sports figures and entertainers. We also have a president that half of America doesn’t accept as a “real American.” There is no even playing field. Does this excuse all the flaws you, Gail, enumerate? Of course not, but it helps explain many of them. It’s tragic that abused children often grow up to be abusers. Abused peoples also have to carry the burden of both history and the present.

It’s fair to point out flaws and self-destructive or anti-social behavior. It’s also fair to hold people to account for their acts–even when we understand their source. But what happens when I hold my people to such standards? Do I want justice or do I crave mercy and some understanding of history?

When I look at Israel, whose existence as a Jewish State I fully and passionately support, do I see the anger and violence of some of the Settlers and Ultra Nationalists objectively and critically? When they denounce secular Jews, do I get as angry as I would if it came from non-Jews? When they refuse to recognize the democratic secular authority of Israel’s government, do I see this as the same non-recognition as from the Arab world? Do I judge them, and ask others to judge them, less harshly because of what we have been through? Can I objectively see my people without the context of the Shoah/Holocaust? No I can’t. Can an American black be blind to slavery and persecution? Of course not. Should the Jewish community ignore history? That would be a tragic irony. Should American society be blind to history? You know the right answer. Understanding is not approval but it is more thoughtful and less self-indulgent than simple blame.
2012 Jonathan Dobrerwww.Dobrer.com